Two Birds With One Myth-Debunking Campaign: Engaging Students to Target Psychological Misconceptions
Misconceptions of psychological phenomena are widespread and often not easily eliminated—even among students completing college-level psychology courses. As part of a research methods psychology course, students developed public-service-announcement-style posters as part of a psychology myth-debunking campaign and presented these to students enrolled in introductory psychology courses on campus. Results revealed that both the introductory students who were exposed to the myth-debunking campaign and the research method students who created the campaign endorsed significantly fewer myths than their respective compariso...
Source: Teaching of Psychology - September 23, 2015 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: LaCaille, R. A. Tags: Methods and Techniques Source Type: research
Coverage of Milgram's Obedience Experiments in Social Psychology Textbooks: Where Have All the Criticisms Gone?
We examined 10 current social textbooks to determine the present state of this Milgram-friendly coverage. Our findings indicate that such coverage has become the norm. Methodological and ethical criticisms of the obedience experiments and challenges to their external validity are seldom cited, and if they are, they are only briefly described and usually dealt with in a Milgram-friendly manner. We discuss two factors likely responsible for this insufficient treatment of these criticisms in social psychology textbooks and urge remediation. (Source: Teaching of Psychology)
Source: Teaching of Psychology - September 23, 2015 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Griggs, R. A., Whitehead, G. I. Tags: Topical Articles Source Type: research
Students' Perceptions of the Teaching Evaluation Process
We explored how students view the teaching evaluation process and assessed their self-reported behaviors when completing student evaluations of teaching (SETs). We administered a 28-item survey assessing these views to students from a cross section of majors across 20 institutions (N = 597). Responses to this measure were analyzed using exploratory factor analysis. Students also answered an open-ended question about their views; responses were coded into 21 categories. We found that students generally held positive views about the evaluation process and that, overall, these positive views were consistent across type of ins...
Source: Teaching of Psychology - September 23, 2015 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Kite, M. E., Subedi, P. C., Bryant-Lees, K. B. Tags: Topical Articles Source Type: research
Student and Instructor Use of the Teacher Behavior Checklist
This study examined self- and student ratings of 35 instructors. The same characteristics that affect student ratings using other instrumentation impact student evaluation via the TBC. Further, several course and instructor variables impacted instructor self-evaluations. Instructor self-ratings did not correlate significantly with the ratings provided by the students. The implications of the findings for using the TBC for formative and summative assessment are discussed. (Source: Teaching of Psychology)
Source: Teaching of Psychology - September 23, 2015 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Stigall, L., Blincoe, S. Tags: Topical Articles Source Type: research
Incentivizing Multiple Revisions Improves Student Writing Without Increasing Instructor Workload
Previous research has shown that when students are required to submit a draft and a revision of their writing, large proportions of students do not improve across drafts. We implemented a writing assignment in which students were permitted to submit up to four optional drafts. To encourage substantive revisions, students were awarded additional points if they received all points on the grading rubric. Based on the grades of the instructors, 31% of students eventually earned perfect scores in this assignment, compared to 13% in a typical single revision assignment. Permitting students to submit up to four optional drafts re...
Source: Teaching of Psychology - September 23, 2015 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Stellmack, M. A., Sandidge, R. R., Sippl, A. L., Miller, D. J. Tags: Topical Articles Source Type: research
What Is a Psychological Misconception? Moving Toward an Empirical Answer
Studies of psychological misconceptions have often used tests with methodological shortcomings, unknown psychometric properties, and ad hoc methods for identifying misconceptions, creating problems for estimating frequencies of specific misconceptions. To address these problems, we developed a new test, the Test of Psychological Knowledge and Misconceptions, administering it to a sample of 162 graduate and undergraduate psychology students and to a second sample of 173 undergraduate psychology majors. Results revealed high consistency in item response frequencies across samples, allowing identification of specific misconce...
Source: Teaching of Psychology - September 23, 2015 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Bensley, D. A., Lilienfeld, S. O. Tags: Topical Articles Source Type: research
2015 Teaching Excellence Award Winners
(Source: Teaching of Psychology)
Source: Teaching of Psychology - September 23, 2015 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Fineburg, A. C., Amsel, E. Tags: Society for the Teaching of Psychology Source Type: research
